Apple and others continue to push the lie that lossy music is high quality.
They claim they will soon be shipping studio quality airpods and over-the-ear headphones. Please.
Nothing lossy is studio quality.
Nothing wireless is studio quality*.
lossy
Forgotten Audio Formats: MP3
The year was 1994. Music was as popular as it’s ever been, with rock bands like Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins, popstars such as Ace of Base and Mariah Carey, and even soul artists like Boyz II Men and Janet … Read the rest
Proper Digital Audio Playback
The PonoPlayer got it right, whether they survive as a business or not.
There is a right way and a quick way to build a digital audio playback circuit.
The following information comes from Charlie Hansen, the designer of the … Read the rest
Anti-Audio Tech Sites, Pt. II
To followup on my rant against american tech sites like Ars Technica and how they completely ignore hi-res audio, I found some proof.
Check out Crutchfield, an american stereo catalog retailer. Crutchfield is known for their help in installing and … Read the rest
The Power of Labels
Degrade -d
- treat or regard with contempt or disrespect
- lower the character or quality of
- reduce to a lower rank, especially as a punishment
Synonyms: demean, debase, cheapen, devalue, shame, humiliate, mortify, abase, dishonor, dehumanize, brutalize, lossy
Original
- present
Lossy Is Hurting Us
Quick visual experience:
If you own a ponoplayer or another modern 24bit digital audio player, you can experience this.
Full resolution for all the music you love will return you to the quality you deserve.
Note … Read the rest
The Art of Recorded Music
A canvas. A monitor.
A block of clay.
Human imagination is more fertile and expansive than all of them.
Human imagination is where the soundstage of recorded music is rendered.
Creating sound for a recording takes planning. Even a simple … Read the rest
Youkill Audio Youtube
Deets on Youtube’s audio handling:
Audio is streamed at either 128k or 320k mp3.
Everything defaults to 128k. You can only get the 320k audio stream by selecting the HD video quality. Some videos start in HD but most don’t. … Read the rest
More Hi-Res Rumors For Apple
I guess this is good – rumors are floating again that Apple Music is moving into Hi-Res Audio. Being a rumor there are very few specifics but a few people more influential than me are saying that 24/96 streaming … Read the rest
The Danger of Perceptual Coding
Perceptual coding is responsible for data loss that is greatly misunderstood and perhaps even dangerous to society.
What is perceptual coding ? It’s a data compression concept used in audio, video, and streaming technologies.
Why does perceptual … Read the rest
The Resolution Wars
MP3’s are dying, thank god. MP3 is a transitionary technology that has overstayed it’s welcome.
If you believe lossy MP3 is all you need for music, goodbye. Come back when you want to listen. Yes 320k is better than 192k … Read the rest
Spotify Wants Your Profile For The Highest Bidder
While Pono makes news with their righteous promise to give you free content upgrades for life, Spotify is making news with an update to their privacy policy that informs the users of their service – particularly the free subscription tier … Read the rest
The Sad State of Consumer Audio
There is a lot of technology available today, some at very affordable prices. Choice appears abundant but it’s a false narrative.
Why is choice a false narrative? Because most of the choices are already compromised and the actual quality of … Read the rest
Why Apple Music (or Spotify) Doesn’t Matter Much
Tidal Shows The Ghost In The MP3
This is a good start. Here’s Tidal trying to explain simply why MP3 sounds worse than CD quality. They want $20/month the stream CD-quality to you, so they will strongly market against lossy compression.
Apple’s Upcoming Music Announcement
Will it have anything to do with sound quality? I doubt it.
Apple likes to roll out new products with slick presentations touting all of the improvements in the product, or how the new product improves upon an existing solution.… Read the rest
The New Kid On The High Resolution Block – MQA
Well this is getting interesting. British company Meridian has come up with something that goes beyond just a format or delivery mechanism, and also involves lossy compression, yet it still looks like a potential future audio technology we need to … Read the rest
The Ghost in the MP3
Excellent work by Ryan letting you hear an approximation of what they are removing from MP3 files when doing “lossy” compression.
This is what the MP3 programmers deem unimportant in your music. You can play the video with it’s own … Read the rest